Give Virginia Teachers a Choice: Break the Monopoly of the Virginia Education Association

TOPICS:

ATTENTION: Major social media outlets are finding ways to block the conservative/evangelical viewpoint. Click here for daily electronic delivery of the day's top blogs from Virginia Christian Alliance.

Posted By: Virginia Christian Alliance January 13, 2019

In Virginia, Teachers have only one choice for a professional organization to represent them – the Virginia Education Association (a subsidiary of the National Education Association). The VEA has a monopoly on school divisions. It is time Teachers are given a choice of professional organizations and SB1236 gives them that choice! Please contact the following committee members and tell them to support teachers’ rights and vote yes on SB1236.  

This week, Senate Bill 1236 (Equal Access; Education Employee Associations and Professional Educator Liability) was referred by the Senate Committee on Education and Health to the Public Education Subcommittee. Following last year’s precedent set in the United States Supreme Court decision (Janus v. AFSCME), this bill requires that teachers must be provided with education association membership options and costs that align with their need for educational services, professional liability insurance, and are congruent with their values.

The bill will be heard 30 minutes after adjournment of the Senate, on Thursday, January 17th, 2019, in Subcommitee Room 2, 5th Floor, Pocahontas Building, Richmond, VA.  Please express your support for this bill by contacting the following committee members:

Sen. Bill DeSteph (R-08), working with the Middle Resolution and Virginia Beach SPARK Education Association, introduced Senate Bill 1236, which:

  • prohibits preferential treatment to or the endorsement of one education employee association over another through procedures, policies, or any other means;
  • provides all education employee associations the same opportunity to attend new teacher or employee orientations in an effort to recruit new members, if any such attendance is permitted;
  • provides equal access to employee mailboxes or email addresses to all employee education associations, if any such access is given; and
  • requires school boards to adopt and implement policies that ensure employees have equal access to professional educator liability insurance, across a broad range of policy providers and not just the Virginia Education Association.

 

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views the Virginia Christian Alliance

About the Author

Virginia Christian Alliance
The mission of the VIRGINIA CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE is to promote moral, social and scientific issues we face today from a Biblical point of view. In addition we will refute and oppose, not with hate, but with facts and humor, the secular cultural abuses that have overridden laws and standards of conduct of the past. We will encourage Christians to participate in these efforts through conferences, development of position papers, booklets and tracts, radio/TV spots, newspaper ads and articles and letters-to-the editor, web sites, newsletters and providing speakers for church and civic meetings.

Related Articles